It was arguably inevitable that the Chinese Empire would become the most powerful nation the world has ever seen; with its abundant resources and massive population, once the industrial revolution hit there was no stopping the Qing. As ASB as it might seem, though, what if history had gone in the opposite direction? Essentially, what is the absolute worst China could have done with a POD after the Taiping rebellion (when the modernization started). Bonus points if the dynasty falls, and if China becomes divided.
What would make it fall would be reliant on both the various Western powers stomping on China, while at the same time the internal politics of the Imperial Court would have to veer so hard to the 'Conservative' factions that the most powerful persons involved would practically be a Morlock in their politics.
Even then I can't imagine China being colonized the way the West did with Africa and (then) big parts of Asia... Maybe they'd try for some sort of economic domination like the old Roman Empire did, set up a bunch of military outposts to control China's economy while using Qing as puppet-rulers.
It's still a stretch, though Qing falling apart like China's other dynasties isn't completely unfeasible, back then they were still (officially) Manchu and were still keeping the Han Chinese away from the levers of political power as much as possible. A nationalist revolt after the Taiping Rebellion could see them toppled, though literally anything might wind up replacing Qing, a new Han Chinese dynasty, a Republic, a Dictatorship, the dissolvement of China into warring states.
It's still a stretch though.